Is Kiev/Kyiv the new acid test for Russo-centrism?

[colkitto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alina Israeli" <aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Is Kiev/Kyiv the new acid test for Russo-centrism?


> >We all know that choices about our language use carry a political
>>component. None of the terms 'colored', 'black' and 'African
>>America' are inherently offensive.
>
> These are still issues to be debated. And also these are generational
> changes of self-names: Thurgood Marshall called himself Negro till his
> death in 1993, while many older (living) people prefer "Black". The term
> African-American came into being in the late 80's. It's questionable 
> status
> is due to the fact that Charlize Theron is also African-American, and so
> are most of the taxi-drivers in Washington DC, most of their relatives are
> in Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and so on (I always make a point of asking).
> And there is a difference between a German-American and someone with a
> German last name, some of whose ancestors must have come from Germany.

Walter Williams writes with amusement that his "designation" has been 
changed four times in his lifetime. (Coloured, Negro, Black, 
African-American (I think in that order))

And to supercharge this debate, Afrikaners (Africans) now living in the US 
apparently do not count as "African American", although their pedigree in 
Africa is often of longer standing than many "Americans" and certainly 
"Australians" and "New Zealanders".

Recently there was a school somewhere in (I think) Missouri which had an 
award for an outstanding "African American" student.  On the merits, it 
looked as though there was an Afrikaner student (in the US for about four 
years)  who should have won it, but this caused huge consternation and 
embarrassment, and of course, (s)he (I forget which) ended up not getting 
the award after all.

Only in America ..... 

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